


sunflowers

by Evoxine



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Abandonment, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Federal Agents, Anal Sex, Bonding, Breeding, Child Abandonment, Falling In Love, Idiots in Love, Kissing, Knotting, M/M, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, One Big Happy Family, Pack Dynamics, Parent-Child Relationship, Rimming, Wet & Messy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:10:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21601300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evoxine/pseuds/Evoxine
Summary: Despite living in an era where omega rights are championed, heinous crimes are still constantly committed against'the weaker secondary sex'. Jongin, an alpha and agent in a task force that actively works to stop these crimes and capture those responsible, gets a call one morning about a rogue pack spotted in the wilderness.Sehun has always been a relatively independent omega. But when the father of his child and the other alphas of his pack disappear one day, he's left with a swollen belly and a very uncertain future.Then, they meet.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun
Comments: 107
Kudos: 725
Collections: #BabyMakingFest2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wowowow, look at me writing mpreg! (」゜ロ゜)」  
> I hope you all enjoy this, and thank you to the mods for organizing the fest!
> 
>  **Code:** BMF295  
>  **Pairing:** Sehun/Jongin  
>  **Carrier:** Sehun  
>  **Pregnancy:** Any of the two (Pre/during pregnancy or Post pregnancy)  
>  **Babies:** Any of the two (Only one or More than one)  
>  **Prompt:** alpha jongin finds a pack without a leader and with a pregnant omega  
> 

Today, it’s not the usual alarm that wakes Jongin up. 

The city is still asleep when his emergency duty alarm goes off, sharp peals ringing through the house and bouncing off the walls. Jongin bolts upright at the sound, eyelids heavy with abandoned sleep and left leg tingling from the awkward position he was in.

He scrambles for his phone, knocking things off the nightstand until his fingers come into contact with a cold, hard shape that feels like a phone. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, we just got a report of a wild pack in the west side of town. From what we can tell, they’re betas and omegas, and there are two young children. They’re not threatening any civilians, but because we don’t know if they have any alpha pack members nearby, we’re keeping the street cops away for now.”

Halfway through Kyungsoo’s recount of the situation, Jongin slides out of bed and shuffles across the room to the en suite. He leaves the lights off, choosing to rely on his eyesight alone to get ready – if he turns the lights on now, there’s a high chance he’ll blind himself from the fluorescence. 

“I’ve already sent Natalie and Alex out to the scene, but Boss Lady wants you to join them. She says it’s rare for a wild pack to appear in that area, especially since the new territorial laws were established, so she wants you there just in case things go awry.”

Jongin squeezes out a blob of toothpaste onto his toothbrush and sticks it in his mouth. “Okay, I’ll be there. Thanks for the call, man.” 

Fifteen minutes later, he’s dressed and ready to leave. A thin Henley and fitted jeans, his scent glands covered with a thin layer of scent suppressant – he doesn’t want to intimidate stranger alphas, nor does he want to stir up any hormonal reactions in unbonded betas and omegas. His weapon rests against his hip, safety on and magazine loaded with tranquilising bullets. 

Car keys in hand, Jongin locks the door behind him and heads out into the crisp dawn air. 

  
The site is considerably far from where he lives, but the drive turns out to be a relaxing one, thanks to the lack of traffic. Jongin stops by a cosy, family-run diner for a large cup of coffee that he takes out to his car in a thermos, and he spends most of the drive sipping coffee and humming along to rock music. By the time he arrives, the sun is high in the sky and he’s in a pleasant mood.

He sees Natalie standing by the open doors of an ambulance, looking terribly unimpressed with the situation at hand. The sound of his car door slamming shut draws her attention and she beckons to him. 

As soon as Jongin is within scenting distance, he’s able to pinpoint the note of anger simmering beneath the female alpha’s scent blockers. Alex is busy conversing with a street cop a few feet away, and it’s clear that _he’s_ unhappy as well, if the tense set of his jaw is anything to go by.

“Good morning?” Jongin tries. 

Natalie raises an eyebrow. “It will no longer be a good morning once you realise what’s going on.” She closes a hand around Jongin’s wrist, manicured nails digging into his flesh. Jongin doesn’t flinch at the brief pricks of pain, just lets her tug him around the open ambulance doors, where a group of dishevelled men and women are huddled together. Jongin sees two small lumps covered with blankets and curled up on laps – those must be the kids.

None of them looks to be gravely injured, but they’re obviously scared and in need of some good food and a hot shower. Jongin chooses not to approach them as to not cause panic, although he does end up trying to speak to the only one who dares to make eye contact. 

“I’m SSA Kim from the Bureau –”

Natalie nudges him in the side. “Don’t bother. Alex and I have been trying for the past twenty minutes to get something out of them. Perhaps Mari will have more success when she gets here, maybe they’ll be more receptive to – _hey!_ This area is out of bounds to civilians; I don’t care if you’re a reporter or the goddamned President.” She storms off, probably to ream the small, but building, group of reporters until they’re shaking in their boots. 

Mere moments after Jongin turns away from the ambulance, intent on finding someone who can provide him with more information about this wild pack, he hears a soft, pained cry. 

That sound causes the hairs on the back of his neck to rise. It’s discomfort, fear, and dejection all wrapped up in a single whine, and the alpha in him is triggered to protect. 

“Is someone hurt?”

At the back of the ambulance, Jongin sees two women crowding around a curled up form, the others adopting defensive stances when Jongin gets near. After years in the Bureau, Jongin knows from experience that there’s only one thing he can do that will get the results he wants in a short amount of time – he takes a breath and pulls up his Alpha Voice.

“Take a seat and let me through. I will not hurt your pack member, but if he’s injured and I can’t get to him, then I cannot help him.”

There’s a beat of silence, then someone murmurs, “Please don’t hurt him.” Jongin gives them his word, swears upon his promise, and the ambulance rocks as bodies try to make way for Jongin’s bulk. The pitiful ball in the corner whines again and Jongin’s gut churns.

“Hey, I won’t touch you, alright? But can you let me see where –” Jongin inhales sharply, anger instantly flooding through his veins when his mind registers what he’s looking at. How on Earth could his colleagues have failed to notice this? He’ll definitely be giving all of them an earful at the debriefing later.

The man in front of him is pregnant. Judging by the size of his swollen belly, he’s in his third trimester and labour is probably just around the corner. His hair is matted, skin dull and greasy from the lack of access to a shower, and he looks absolutely miserable. 

“Oh boy,” Jongin sighs, crouching down. He fights the urge to rest a hand on the omega’s knee. “I’m Kim Jongin; can you tell me your name?” When he gets no answer for a few moments, Jongin tries again. “I just want to help you and your baby, especially if you’re having contractions or labour-related pains. Would you rather have one of my female colleagues here?”

To his surprise, the omega shakes his head. 

“It’s okay if I stay?” Jongin asks, pleased when he gets a quiet yes in response. 

He inches a little closer. “Where are you hurting? Is it your baby?” Slowly, Jongin extends a hand, palm stopping a few inches from the curve of the omega’s belly. He sees him tense up, fingers curling into defensive fists, but there’s no lashing out of any sort. So Jongin pushes the boundaries a little more and makes contact, fingertips to stomach. 

Through the thin fabric of the omega’s tunic, Jongin feels warmth. 

“Can you tell me where it hurts?”

Eyes, the colour of dark chocolate and tinged with apprehension, lock with his. The omega doesn’t speak and Jongin can feel the gaze of the rest of his pack on the back of his head, so he puts on his least intimidating expression and prods once more. He presses the palm of his hand to a spot below the omega’s belly button. 

“Is it here?”

A small crease forms between the omega’s brows. 

“No?” Jongin moves his hand a little to the left. “What about here?”

Chilled fingers suddenly circle his wrist. The touch startles Jongin, but he manages to hide the shock, letting the other move his hand to a certain spot. 

“...Here.” 

“Does it hurt when I press down?” A slight shake of the head. “Contractions?” Another shake. “Is it a sharp pain?” This time, he gets a nod. 

Jongin hums in thought, hand smoothing over the omega’s heavy belly absently. Those cold fingers stay wrapped around his wrist. “Okay, well I don’t think you’re in labour yet, but I’m going to make sure a doctor at the hospital will be available to check you and the little one out, alright?”

“Mm.”

“Great. Let me just find a female colleague of mine to accompany all of you to the – ” Just as he’s about to stand, Jongin finds himself tugged back down. 

“Will you come?”

Jongin’s first instinct is to decline, for he has an investigation to run. But all it takes is one look at the omega’s face, at the hope he’s trying to mask, before he finds himself agreeing in a heartbeat. 

  
Too absorbed in his thoughts and staring at the range of snacks offered in the vending machine, Jongin doesn’t realise there’s a nurse calling his name until he turns around with a pack of pretzels in hand and spots her. 

She’s standing a few feet away with a manila folder in her hands, looking a little flustered, and Jongin apologises immediately. 

“Terribly sorry –” Jongin squints at her nametag, “– Amanda. I was thinking about the case and – well. Did you have something for me?”

“Um, I was sent to update you on the pack you’ve brought in?”

Jongin rips the bag of pretzels open and sticks one in his mouth. “Walk and talk?”

“We’ve checked them out and we found no major physical injuries,” Amanda says, flipping through the folder. “They have scrapes and bruises, but that’s to be expected from their time spent in the wild. They’re also a little dehydrated. We’ll update you once we get the results of their blood tests back. The children are with one of our paediatricians – they’ll be brought here after they’re done.”

They make their way back into the general wards, where Jongin follows the nurse into a room with six beds. Peering inside, he sees that five out of the six are already in bed, hooked up to IVs for much-needed fluids and electrolytes. Most are asleep and one’s too focused on the television to pay Jongin any attention. 

After a moment, she taps her pen against the doorframe and gestures for Jongin to head down the hall with her. “Mr. Oh is still in with the obstetrician, but he should be done soon. He’s been asking for you.”

A pretzel pauses inches from Jongin’s lips. “For me?”

Amanda nods, swiftly stepping out of the way when another nurse suddenly runs out in front of them. Jongin only avoids colliding with her by swerving off to the side and colliding with a wall instead. They continue walking, Jongin rubbing at the developing bruise as he heads down the stairs and trails after Amanda through the many halls of the hospital. 

Along the way, Jongin picks up a bottle of water. 

“Here you are. He’s just inside.” Amanda stops in front of a door and knocks thrice. “If you need anything, feel free to ask another nurse to page me.”

Jongin sets his hand on the door handle. “Actually, before you go, could you tell me his full name?”

  
The obstetrician bids them goodbye and heads out of the room, letting the door shut behind her with a gentle click. Jongin waits patiently for the omega – Sehun, he remembers – to compose himself, keeping busy by reading a pamphlet on the right way to conduct home births.

He finishes the pamphlet and has just picked out another (The Benefits of Breastfeeding) when Sehun clears his throat. Jongin glances over and sees that the omega is looking right at him. 

Jongin smiles and sets the pamphlets down. “Hey. So all’s good? Just a little infection?”

“Mm.” Sehun shifts around on the obstetrics table, a hand cradling the bottom of his belly protectively. “I’ll have to take some medication, but the baby will be fine.”

“That’s good to know.” 

Neither one of them says anything for a while, then Jongin steps forward with the bottle of water he’d bought before and his half-finished bag of pretzels. “You must be hungry? I know this isn’t much – I’ll ask the nurses to bring you some food once you’re back in the ward.”

Sehun accepts the snack, first taking a long drink of water before breaking off a piece of pretzel, crunching methodically. “This is enough, thank you.”

There’s a vacant chair leaning against the wall, so Jongin takes that and pulls it up to a spot close enough to Sehun to talk, but not too close that he’ll clam up. 

“You wanted to see me?”

“I assumed you would have questions.”

Well, Jongin can’t quite deny that. “Yes, I do.”

Sehun crunches on another pretzel. Now that he’s been cleaned up and he knows his baby is doing just fine, Sehun seems less timid and much more expressive. It’s a nice change, Jongin has to admit. 

“What would you like to know?”

“Where are your pack alphas?”

Slate grey hair, still in need of a wash, tumbles into Sehun’s eyes when he looks down at his lap. His jaw clenches tight and the sight has Jongin wanting to punch himself in the face. _Shit, why didn’t I start with a lighter question?_

“Right, we can come back to that later, if that’s better. So, uh, your pack, are you all –”

“The alphas left.” 

Jongin exhales. “By ‘left,’ do you mean…”

At that, Sehun meets his gaze again; Jongin can see the bitterness in his eyes, as clear as day. “They abandoned the pack. Which leads to the answer to your next question: we couldn’t stay where we were any longer, so the others and I decided to leave.” He takes another gulp of water and wipes his mouth dry with the back of his hand. “After a week or so in the wild, we ended up here. If I didn’t need to stop for a rest, we wouldn’t have been found.”

There are so many things Jongin wants to say, to ask. _Why did the alphas abandon you? Where were you headed? Why did you even have to leave? Where did you plan on going? How could your alpha have left you when you are so close to giving birth?_

In the end, he settles for: “I see. Thank you for telling me.” Jongin reaches into his pocket for his phone. “Would you be okay with staying in the hospital for the time being? Until you give birth? I can arrange for a private room and accommodations for the rest of your pack when they get discharged.”

It’s evident that Sehun wasn’t expecting that question at all. 

“...Yes, I can stay here.” He sighs, tension clear in his hunched shoulders and the set of his brows. “It’s not as if I have anywhere else to go.”

Jongin has never been a pack-focused person, but hearing those words coming out of the omega’s mouth has Jongin wishing that he had a pack to welcome Sehun into. No one, regardless of their secondary sex, should ever feel that way. 

“Is there anyone you want me to contact?”

Sehun shrugs, smoothing a hand over his stomach. “I’d say my parents, but we haven’t kept in contact since they married me off. It’s fine, really. Just as long as I’m able to get in touch with the others when they get discharged.”

The poor man sounds so resigned to his fate that Jongin feels his protective alpha instincts flare up. But Sehun is part of a case that he’s working on and he has to remain professional, no matter how much he wants to make sure Sehun is warm and fed and has a spark of hope that everything will turn out okay.

“I’ll make sure they all get a phone and that they’ll be staying close by. I will also let the nurses in charge of you know that any member of your pack has permission to visit whenever they’d like, okay?”

Sehun nods, bag of pretzels now lying forgotten by his side. Fighting back a sigh, Jongin stands and moves closer to the omega. 

“Here.” Jongin reaches into his wallet and pulls out a name card. “If you need anything, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to call me. If you’re craving pickles, call me. If you want a foot massage, call me. Doesn’t matter what time of day it is, okay? I’m going to get you a phone as soon as you’re transferred to a room.”

He holds the card out to Sehun, who much to Jongin’s relief, takes it without any extra persuasion. 

Then Sehun looks up at him, eyes wet, and smiles. 

“Thank you.”

  
The past couple of weeks have been long and arduous. Recent progressive movements in omegas’ rights have stoked the fire under his superiors’ asses, which in turn means that Jongin is under a lot of pressure to settle this case as smoothly as possible. He has barely gotten any rest, too busy travelling back and forth between the hospital and the office to have any time for a shower, much less a good night’s sleep. 

It helps that the rest of Sehun’s pack gets discharged within a few days. With Natalie’s help, Jongin manages to secure clean and convenient accommodation for them – he leaves them in the capable hands of Mari, knowing that the beta’s natural charm and soft-spoken voice will help settle the five of them better than he can ever hope to do so. 

Sehun settles in well, busying himself with a plethora of hobbies, ranging from knitting baby booties to reading up on existentialism. Jongin drops by to visit him at least once every day, making sure to bring him whatever snacks he happens to be craving. 

Mari had managed to glean a few slivers of information from the rest of the pack: there were three alphas, and they had left due to increasing conflicts with a neighbouring – and much larger – pack. Rather than staying to protect their young and their bonded, they chose to protect themselves instead. Mari wasn’t even able to finish her report when Jongin, incensed, turned heel and left his office.

Every time he enters Sehun’s hospital room, Jongin can practically see the question bubbling up to the tip of his tongue. Jongin wonders if it’s because Sehun has accepted the situation or if it’s some kind of self-punishment, but Sehun never asks about how the case is progressing. He never asks if Jongin has any leads on the whereabouts of the alphas who abandoned them, of the father of his child. So Jongin doesn’t offer up any information, either. 

Well, it’s not as if Jongin has anything to tell Sehun that he doesn’t already know. 

Seeing Sehun and knowing that he’s unable to bring him any closure just… eats at Jongin. It’s a weird sort of guilt, one that gnaws at him throughout the night and keeps him in a fitful doze. It leaves him irritable and snappish at work, and his coworkers have learned that it’s best to keep out of his way unless they absolutely need to talk to him. 

“Is something bothering you?”

Jongin looks up from his phone to see Sehun studying him, the book he was reading now resting on the peak of a huge mountain that is his belly. 

“It’s nothing,” Jongin says, resisting the urge to press down on his temples. “It’s just that work has been… challenging.”

“That’s not nothing,” Sehun points out, reaching over to where Jongin has built up a stash of snacks for him. He picks out a peanut butter cup and unwraps it with deft fingers before popping the entire treat into his mouth. 

A happy purr rumbles in the back of Sehun’s throat and Jongin catches sight of his toes wiggling underneath the thin blanket. A bright, floral scent hits him square in the face – the thought that he has provided for an omega, has made him content to the point of purring and releasing happy hormones, sends his alpha preening with a huge wave of satisfaction. 

But he shakes the thought away, because Sehun isn’t his omega. He’s someone else’s omega, someone else that _left him and his baby_. Jongin sets his jaw and glances down at the phone in his lap, screen lit up with a few messages from his colleagues. 

“It’s part of the job. Not the best part, but a necessary part nonetheless.”

He pours out a glass of water for Sehun, who accepts it with a small smile. 

There’s a brief moment of silence where Sehun sips at his water and Jongin stares at the heft of Sehun’s belly. He’d talked with Sehun’s doctor today and learned that the baby’s due in a week, right around the end of the month. Childbirth – something that both parents should be around for.

“Would it help,” Sehun begins, draining the rest of the glass and setting it aside, “if I tell you that I don’t want you to pursue the alphas? If I wanted this case dropped?”

To say that Sehun’s words took him by surprise would be the understatement of the century. 

“What?”

Judging by the look on Sehun’s face, he’s not kidding. 

“I want this case dropped. We all do.”

“Why?”

“They left,” Sehun says simply. “And we don’t want them back.”

Jongin leans forward, subconsciously reaching out to touch the inside of Sehun’s wrist with his fingertips. “It’s not about me wanting to bring them back to you. I want them to be held responsible for what they’ve done.”

He almost jumps in his seat when Sehun’s hand flips around, those slim fingers curling around his own. 

“It’s not worth it. We just want to move on, now. Baekhyun and Lena have kids to raise, and I believe I can speak for them when I say that we’d rather not have the alphas back. Not when they did what they did. Our children may grow up without their fathers, but they’d be better off that way. We will be fine, Jongin. We don’t want retribution, just somewhere to start over.”

“They’re an embarrassment,” Jongin mutters, staring at the way Sehun’s thumb sweeps across the back of his hand in small arcs. “Alphas are supposed to protect, to be there for our mates when they need or want us – our families are supposed to be _everything_ to us.”

When Sehun squeezes his fingers, Jongin looks up at him and is taken aback to see a genuine smile spreading across pink lips. 

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I never bonded with my alpha.”

Jongin blinks. 

“You…didn’t?”

“It was an arranged marriage,” Sehun tells him matter-of-factly, letting go of Jongin’s hand when his baby kicks. Sehun rubs at the spot on his stomach, brow creased, and takes a few breaths before he relaxes minutely. “He would ask, every heat, for me to let him bite me. I refused, even after I fell pregnant. Why would I, if I didn’t love him?” His expression falls. “The others aren’t as lucky, though.”

Something in Jongin’s gut stirs. He does not like that look on Sehun’s face at all. 

“I’ll talk to the others,” Jongin hears himself saying. “Or I’ll get Mari to. There are options for bond dissolutions; I’ll see if they’re interested. If they are, I can pull some strings to get them ahead in the line.”

The corner of Sehun’s mouth lifts – good, Jongin’s alpha is happy with that. 

“You can talk to them yourself, you know. They trust you.”

Oh, Jongin could dance right now. 

“I’ll, uh, keep that in mind.”

Sehun’s smile grows a little wider. 

  
Jongin’s in the middle of a meeting when an officer barges into the room and informs him that Sehun has gone into labour. He stays frozen in his seat for a few seconds, unable to do much apart from trying to process what he’s just been told until Kyungsoo smacks him upside the head.

“The fuck are you still doing here? Go!”

He goes, sprinting from the office down to the parking garage – he runs down twenty-eight flights of stairs simply because the elevators took too long – in mere minutes. 

Traffic is blessedly smooth and he makes it to the hospital without once getting the urge to turn his sirens on. Once there, Jongin weaves through dozens of people with ease, muscle memory serving him well as he makes his way past corridor after corridor. The nurses in Sehun’s ward all recognise him, so when Jongin asks to be brought to the omega, he’s taken there without question. 

“Mr. Oh is currently in active labour. Contractions are coming every three to four minutes, each one lasting close to a minute. His doctor thinks he’ll be ready to deliver the baby in less than an hour.”

Jongin barely digests any of the information the nurse is saying. He’s busy breaking out in a cold sweat; he has never witnessed a birth. Only mates are legally allowed to be in the labour room with the omega for the birth – with his own beta sister, Jongin was only able to be present for her contractions before he was shooed out. 

The nurse leaves him standing in front of Sehun’s room. There, staring at the (probably) sterilized door, Jongin takes a few deep breaths and knocks. God, he has never been so nervous in his life, not even on his first day on the job. 

Sehun is alone inside, the television blaring some sitcom as the omega tries to distract himself from the pain and discomfort. Sweat plasters his hair to his forehead and there’s a flush riding high in his cheeks. As he walks – waddles, really – back and forth, his hospital gown parts to show the pointed peaks of his nipples as his body readies itself to care for his child. 

Heat floods through Jongin, pooling in his cheeks much like the red that’s lingering on Sehun’s, although it’s thanks to a vastly different reason. 

“You came.”

Jongin walks up to Sehun and rests a gentle hand on his belly. 

“The little one’s coming out. It’s an honour to be here, really.”

Sehun huffs out a weak laugh. 

“Wanna swap places?”

He barely manages to get the words out before another contraction comes, sending him doubling over with his palms planted on the bed. His features tense in pain, teeth clenched and breath coming out in short bursts between pursed lips. 

Faced with a pregnant omega’s discomfort, Jongin suddenly thinks of the many brochures he’s read since Sehun has been in hospital and nearly leaps with joy at the realisation that he can help. He rubs a soothing hand up and down the length of Sehun’s back and helps Sehun regulate his breaths.

When the contractions stop, Jongin pats the corner of the bed and helps Sehun sit. “Let me try something, okay?”

Keeping Sehun’s frame braced with a hand on his shoulder, Jongin digs the heel of his other hand into the small of Sehun’s back, using his weight to add pressure right over the base of his spine. The relieved moan that Sehun releases is music to Jongin’s ears. 

Time passes like that, with Jongin massaging out the tension in Sehun’s muscles as the duration between contractions shortens. He moves up to Sehun’s shoulders, kneading out the soreness there before moving back down to his lower back. 

Then the door opens and Sehun’s doctor walks in.

“Oh, _very_ good,” she says, looking extremely pleased with the scene in front of her. “So many mates don’t even attend birthing classes, much less give out massages. Once, I witnessed an alpha napping while his omega went through labour. Despicable, really.” 

She steps over to the sink and scrubs her hands, the rush of water doing nothing to hide the sound of blood rushing through Jongin’s ears. He clears his throat, gaze darting over to Sehun, and says, “We’re, ah, not mates.”

“I know, Agent Kim.” She continues scrubbing. “If you were his alpha, your actions would be expected, but your relationship is a professional one. Which is why I am praising you.”

Jongin gets his fair share of commendations, but nearly all of them are work related. His quick thinking during a raid, a shot to the head that saved many innocent lives, his patience over the course of a five-hour hostage situation. But this? Taking care of an omega in labour? Jongin has never been praised for this.

“Thank you?”

Next to him, Sehun snorts. With slight difficulty, he gets off the corner of the bed and moves up to the middle, where he pauses to bend over and take a few deep breaths.

“The father of this baby has probably left the country, if not the continent. So take the compliment, Jongin. You’re here to support me, you’re counting me through my breathing, _and_ you’re giving me excellent massages. You deserve it much more than –”

His monologue is cut off when another contraction hits. Instinctively, Jongin finds himself moving behind Sehun and kneading at the dimples on either side of Sehun’s spine. 

The doctor, now scrubbed, dried, and gowned, steps forward.

“Alright, as much as the massages are good, they won’t be able to get the baby out. Shall we get started?”

  
An hour later and the labour room is filled with the cries of Sehun’s newborn daughter. All stitched up and tucked into bed, Sehun cradles her carefully in his arms, eyes alight with so much joy that something aches in Jongin’s chest at the sight. She’s been wiped clean, tiny hands and feet swaddled up in something soft and a pale yellow. From his seat by the side of Sehun’s bed, Jongin can’t stop looking at her little nose. Goodness, she’s so small.

“She has your nose,” Jongin blurts, nearly falling out of his chair from how much he’s leaning out of it. Sehun smiles and bops the tip of her nose with his finger. She’s quietened down now, dozing off in Sehun’s arms, soothed by the warmth and scent of her mother. 

“Yeah?”

“Honestly, she looks exactly like you,” says Jongin. Before today, babies all looked the same to him, but his perspective has shifted just a little since. “Can’t really see her eyes, but I know she’ll grow up to be a beauty.”

When the baby squirms and Jongin sees the outline of her tiny toes against the baby blanket, he can’t help but reach out and touch her big toe. But because omegas tend to be extremely protective of their newborns, even when it comes to their mates, Jongin instantly readies himself to apologise for the contact. Yet surprisingly, Sehun doesn’t even shift his child away from Jongin’s touch. Instead, he simply smiles again and brushes a few wispy strands of hair away from her face. 

“I just hope I’ll be able to give her the life she deserves. I know it’ll be hard without a father figure, but –”

“You’ll be an amazing parent, Sehun. You’ll make up for his absence, without a doubt, and she will know she’s loved.” 

Sehun falls silent, contemplative, and Jongin chooses not to say anything else. He does scent the air discreetly, however, and is relieved to note that he doesn’t pick up any negative scents. 

His phone pings and Jongin pulls it out of his pocket to see a slew of messages from Baekhyun.

“Your pack’s in the waiting area and they’re quite impatient to see you and the baby,” Jongin reports, scrolling through Baekhyun’s many messages – most of them are barely five words in length and punctuated with a lot of exclamation marks. “Would you like me to bring them in?”

“Yes, but first, what do you think of the name Erin?”

  
Two days later and Jongin is back in the hospital to oversee Sehun’s discharge. He’d been busy with work over the past couple of days and thus was unable to come and see him, but to make up for it, he brings the largest (and fluffiest) stuffed dog he could find for Erin, as well as a bouquet of sunflowers and daisies for Sehun. 

Mari has already set up a fully furnished apartment for Sehun in the same compound as the rest of his pack, so settling down should be quite easy for the omega. The media frenzy surrounding the pack’s discovery has died down, although Jongin still gets the occasional reporter coming up to him when he leaves work for home. But as far as the media is concerned, they’ve moved on to newer things, a fact that everyone involved in the now-closed case is thankful for. 

Shifting the dog and the flowers onto one arm, Jongin knocks on Sehun’s door and waits. He’d expected Sehun to call out a come in! but the door swings open to reveal Baekhyun instead. 

“Well he _llo_ , Agent Kim.” Baekhyun’s grin is blinding and very mischievous. “Ooh, what do you have there?”

“Oh, uh.” Jongin gives the dog a little awkward shake. “It’s for Erin.”

“I don’t think she’s old enough to appreciate flowers, Agent Kim.”

“The flowers are for Sehun, to celebrate his discharge and Erin’s birth. And please, just call me Jongin.”

Over Baekhyun’s shoulder, Jongin sees Sehun exiting the bathroom, dressed simply in jeans and a tee. His belly is still round, pecs full with milk, but he carries the extra weight elegantly. 

“Hi,” Sehun says when he spots him. He’s got the hospital gown in his hands, neatly folded. “Thanks for coming by to pick us up.”

Jongin moves around Baekhyun, pausing by Erin’s crib to gaze down at the slumbering infant. Her cheeks are so fluffy.

“Not a problem. Here, these are for you. And this is for Erin, for when she’s a little older to cuddle it.” He hands both the flowers and the plush over – Sehun pats the dog on its head with a fond smile and sets it down on the bed, then buries his nose into one of the flowers. 

“I love sunflowers. How did you know?”

It’s probably a little creepy to say _they remind me of you_ , so Jongin lifts a shoulder and says, “The lady at the shop recommended them to me.” 

Then Baekhyun walks into view and Jongin feels his ears burn at the knowing look on the other omega’s face. 

Sehun, oblivious, hums happily and takes another whiff of the flowers’ fragrance. 

  
For Jongin, life steadily becomes more and more eventful. 

From the second he graduated the academy and received his badge, work has been the most important thing in his life. In the past, Jongin’s time was neatly portioned out into the office, the gym, and his house. Weekly drinks with coworkers and fortnightly dinners with his family made up the bulk of his social life. 

But now, there are days that Jongin chooses to forgo the gym, along with paperwork, and his coworkers are still trying to get used to the fact that he’s no longer the last one in the office.

Instead of burning the midnight oil at his desk, Jongin babysits the kids in order to give Sehun and his pack some free time. Instead of running ten miles on the treadmill, Jongin accompanies Sehun to his favourite diner down the street, where Erin gurgles in Sehun’s arms as the omega slurps down a large milkshake like it’s air. Instead of spending the weekend poring over cold cases, Jongin brings the entire pack out to the park, watching as the children play in the grass and as the adults enjoy a picnic. 

“So,” Kyungsoo says one day, leaning over the partition between their desks. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with that pack.”

“They have three young children and no alpha,” says Jongin. His fingers don’t stop moving across the keyboard. “Most of them are working in order to provide for the kids, because they don’t want to accept the city’s money. They’re –”

“Whoa there, I never asked for an explanation,” Kyungsoo interrupts, eyes practically overflowing with amusement. 

Jongin crooks an eyebrow, finally looking away from his screen. “What are you asking for, then?”

Looking like the cat that got the cream, Kyungsoo shrugs and slinks back down into his seat. “Oh, nothing at all.”

They get back to work – or so Jongin thinks. He’s barely finished another paragraph of his report when he receives an email alert. Jongin’s just about to disregard the notification when he notices that the sender is none other than Kyungsoo. 

Sighing, he loads the email. 

_hey, so i heard from jongdae who heard from mari who heard from baekhyun that..._

_...chanyeol is planning to ask sehun out on a date_

Jongin stares at the screen. It feels as though his brain has shut down, and it’s evident in the way he clicks on Reply instead of simply opening his mouth to ask what the hell his friend is on about. 

_What?_

He counts to thirty-eight before his mailbox pings again. 

_chanyeol, that really loud guy from cyber crimes, is gonna ask sehun on a DATE, idiot. are you really ok with that_

_Am I not supposed to be ok with it?_

He sees Kyungsoo roll his eyes, then hears furious typing. 

_you’re gonna be ok seeing sehun holding the hand of some other alpha, of erin being cradled by some other alpha, of –_

Jongin doesn’t manage to make it to the end of the email before he breaks the mouse in his hands. Shards of plastic fly all over his desk and Kyungsoo has to duck in order to avoid getting speared in the eye by a rogue one. 

When he resurfaces, however, he has such a smug grin plastered on his face that Jongin is tempted to break his mouse, too. 

  
Erin babbles happily across the room at Sehun, her gummy smile heart-wrenchingly adorable. She’s safely seated in the cradle of Jongin’s crossed legs, the paw of her favourite stuffed dog gripped in her tiny hand, and Jongin gently feeds her another spoonful of home-cooked baby food. 

Baekhyun is due to bring his toddler around for a playdate in fifteen minutes, which is just enough time for Erin to finish her lunch and for Jongin to burp her. There’s a cartoon playing on the telly, but the bright colours and cheerful songs aren’t enough to hold her attention. Her eyes, large and amber, stare up at Jongin with clear adoration and the man is so tempted to swoop down and kiss her a dozen times on the cheeks. But he has to remind himself that he’s not her father, and although Sehun has bestowed him with many privileges in regards to his child, he should not be pushing any boundaries. 

“Aaaaaah,” Jongin says, holding up Erin’s favourite green spoon that has a tiny dinosaur’s head at the end of it. She opens her mouth obediently and lets Jongin feed her a mouthful of mush. 

It hasn’t been long since Erin was weaned off Sehun’s milk, and it seems like she’s enjoying the variety of flavours that do not appear in breastmilk. She eats with great excitement, always lighting up when she sees the spoon coming out of the drawer and Sehun spooning food into her matching blue bowl. 

“She’s almost done,” Jongin reports, scraping the spoon along the bottom of the bowl. There’s enough left for two more mouthfuls. 

“She’s going to grow up to be a glutton,” Sehun laments, much to Jongin’s amusement. Sehun is in the kitchen, finishing up with the preparations for the adults’ lunches. He’d made a casserole today and Jongin’s stomach is already rumbling at the delicious scents flooding the apartment. 

Erin finishes her last mouthful with a giggle and Jongin carefully sets her down on her playmat before he deposits the bowl and spoon into the sink. Sehun thanks him for helping feed his daughter with a smile and Jongin returns it, suddenly hit with the urge to hang around the omega a little longer. But he can’t, because Erin is waiting for him to burp her and clean her cute little mouth, so Jongin picks up a clean washcloth, wets it, and leaves Sehun in the kitchen. 

She has just let out a nice belch when the doorbell rings. 

“Guess who’s here to play with you,” Jongin says, picking Erin up with his hands under her armpits. She shrieks happily when she’s lifted into the air, a chubby arm settling down on Jongin’s shoulder when he rests her on his hip. 

Baekhyun’s four-year-old son, a fiery character by the name of Maxime, sprints into the apartment and clings to Jongin’s leg. Jongin isn’t quite sure how it happened, but all three kids seem to adore him, even Lena’s nine-year-old bookworm, Joan. 

“Hey there, Max. How’re you doing?”

“I want ice cream!”

“Yeah? I think Sehun has some salted caramel ice cream around here… What do you say, Erin? Want some ice cream too?”

Erin squeals and bats at Jongin’s cheek with a fist. Jongin takes the punch in stride. 

Later, when Max is playing with Legos and Erin is half asleep on her doggy, the adults gather around the kitchen island and dig into lunch. 

Jongin gets a little distracted by a text from Natalie, so he misses a bit of the conversation that’s happening around him. When he tunes back in, it’s to hear: “...going on the date?”

It’s the _D_ word. Jongin struggles with swallowing his mouthful of casserole. 

He can feel eyes on him, and when he glances up, Baekhyun levelling him with a contemplative look. Jongin tries not to think about what that means, but fails spectacularly. 

“I don’t know,” Sehun replies, unaware of whatever’s happening between his best friend and… wait, what is Jongin to him anyway? “I haven’t decided.”

Jongin stays quiet and continues eating, mind torn between wanting to listen to the conversation and battling with his inner alpha. His alpha is agitated and itching to stake a claim, driven purely by animal instinct. But Jongin forces it to submit to his will, because he will not be one of _those_ alphas. 

“Jongin?”

Startled, Jongin’s gaze snaps up to see both omegas staring at him from across the marbled counter. 

“Uh?”

“I asked if you think Sehun should go.”

“Go?”

Sehun looks worried, his brows knitting together and half-finished lunch all but forgotten. In the next room, Max bursts out in laughter and the sound has Jongin coming back to his senses, brain working on overdrive to catch up. 

“I think Sehun should do whatever he wants to do.”

He lifts a shoulder, offers them a vague smile, and shoves another spoonful of casserole into his mouth. 

  
Later, after Baekhyun has lugged a half-asleep Maxime back to his own apartment, Jongin stands in the doorway of Erin’s nursery and watches as Sehun tucks her in for her nap. He sees those tiny fingers curl into a tiny fist around the edge of her blanket and a sweet ache seizes around his heart. 

Starting a family – a pack is too much responsibility for someone who tends towards solitude – has always been on the back burner in Jongin’s life. Years ago, he’d told his parents that he’ll bond with someone and become a father when he was ready, and every year since he has never felt ready. 

But as he sees Sehun lean into the crib to press his lips against Erin’s forehead, he thinks he might be. 

“Don’t go,” he says quietly. 

Sehun turns around to look at him, a beam of sunlight seeping into the room between the drawn curtains behind him and turning his hair a dark shade of burnished gold. He tilts his head, the hand on Erin’s tummy sliding around to make sure the blanket is tucked in well before he straightens completely. 

“Don’t go where?”

“On the date.”

There, standing with the curve of his shoulder digging into the edge of the doorframe, Jongin holds his breath. Sehun’s quiet, absently chewing on the inside of his bottom lip as he studies the man across the room. 

“Why?”

It’s a chance he should grasp and Jongin knows it. So he steels his nerves and says, “Because I was hoping you’d go on a date with me instead.”

Sehun’s eyes widen visibly and Jongin picks up on the hitch in his breath. The warm, sunny scent he’s gotten used to over the past few months blossoms into something sweeter, a blend of fruit and honey, and Jongin’s heart skips a beat. 

“You…want to go on a date with me?”

He says it like it’s a miracle, like Jongin _shouldn’t_ want to go on a date with him, for some utterly inconceivable reason. That doesn’t sit well with Jongin at all.

“Yes. Maybe even more than once, if you’d let me.”

God, Sehun smells so good. It takes all of Jongin’s willpower just to breathe evenly and not drink in gulps of air. 

Crinkles form in the corner of Sehun’s eyes. Jongin thinks his smile is stunning. 

“I’d let you.”

  
For the first time in his eight years at the bureau, Jongin takes a whole day off. 

He sleeps in, waking up without the help of his alarm when the sun is already high in the sky. There are texts from his colleagues – Natalie asks if he’s sick, Kyungsoo tells him to have fun on his date (how the hell does he know?), and Alex wonders if he’s finally been forced to take mandatory leave. 

Jongin ignores all of the messages in favour of a long, deep stretch, toes reaching the foot of his bed as his fingers brush against the headboard. Have his muscles always been this wound up? 

After a satisfying breakfast of freshly brewed coffee, cheesy eggs, and crispy bacon, Jongin spends a bit of time cleaning up the house. He cleans the floor, wipes down the surfaces, and even bleaches the toilet bowls. As he throws his rubber gloves into the sink, Jongin gives himself a mental pat on the back for going through with a long overdue cleaning session. 

The sweat he’s worked up doesn’t have time to cool off into a sticky film before he changes into running shorts and a fitted tank. There’s a breeze out, enough to offset some of the heat currently bouncing up off the asphalt, but it doesn’t stop the fabric from sticking to his skin barely ten minutes into his run. 

An hour later and his thighs are jelly. Stumbling into the coolness of his home, Jongin drags his sweaty forearm across his equally sweaty forehead and makes a beeline for his bathroom. He takes a long shower, head ducked under a stream of icy water until his blood cools, after which he cranks up the temperature, steam starting to curl towards the ceiling in lazy tendrils. 

Lathering, scrubbing, shaving… the pads of Jongin’s fingers are pruney by the time he shuts the water off and wraps a towel around his hips. He feels extraordinarily clean, and as he dabs some aftershave along his jaw, he hopes Sehun will find him presentable. 

They’re meeting for lunch at a nice bistro in the heart of town, an area that Jongin rarely frequents due to the crowd. But Sehun wanted to go, saying something about how they have the best pastas and freshly baked bread. As soon as he glimpsed the excitement lighting up Sehun’s eyes, Jongin agreed instantly. 

Baekhyun, the kind soul, offered to take care of Erin. Baekhyun, the not-so-kind soul, also sent Jongin several emails. The first one congratulated him on his success (in the words of Baekhyun, it was a ‘long time coming’), the second one was a thinly veiled threat, and the third one contained the offer of taking care of Erin, so that the two adults may have as much time to themselves as they desired. 

The third email also contained far too many winky emoticons for Jongin’s tastes. 

But Jongin had replied to them all: agreeing that it was long overdue, promising to treat Sehun right, and thanking Baekhyun for his utmost generosity. 

Now, as he fastens the buttons of his jeans and smooths down the front of his shirt, Jongin wishes that Baekhyun had sent him a fourth email containing tips for a successful date. And yet, Jongin thinks, running a small bit of styling product through his hair, Sehun deserves nothing less than an organic date, one that comes from within, from no one else but himself. 

He gives himself a final once-over then turns to the small shelf where he keeps his scent suppressors. For the longest time, he’s never used less than two spritzes of the stuff, one over each gland, because in his line of work, he simply can’t afford to let something like scent interfere with cases. Today, however, instead of pointing the nozzle right at the glands, Jongin sprays it in the air and lets it mist over him instead. 

After all, what’s life without a little risk taking?


	2. Chapter 2

There’s a smattering of freckles over Sehun’s cheekbone, highlighted by the light of the sun, and Jongin cannot help but stare at the graceful sprinkle of melanin. The omega’s talking animatedly as he eats, something about how Erin managed to single handedly destroy Maxine’s Lego tower with a perfectly aimed peach pit. Jongin listens, letting the smooth lilt of Sehun's voice become the accompaniment to his blatant appreciation of the man seated across from him. 

“Did I get something on my face?”

Jongin starts, and embarrassment has him nearly losing his grip on the fork. His mouth recovers much faster than his mind, and Jongin hears himself responding with, “Yeah, you've got something right there.” He gestures vaguely at Sehun's cheek, and the sweet thing actually scrubs at it.

“Did I get it?”

The smart answer is obviously yes, because Sehun doesn’t have anything on his face to wipe off, but Jongin decides to shake his head instead. “No, it’s a little further up.”

Sehun pats at his face with a napkin, brow pinched in concentration. Jongin suddenly really wants to kiss him. 

“Now?”

“Yeah, you got it.” Jongin winces at the roughness of his voice and tries to subtly clear his throat, only for Sehun to nudge at his glass of water with a smile. To his relief, Sehun doesn't check the napkin for any stains. He simply returns to his food and his tale, completely unaware of how Jongin hangs onto his every word. 

When they have finally finished with their meal (although Jongin takes twice as long to clear his plate than usual), Sehun graciously allows Jongin to foot the bill.

“But I'll get dessert,” he says, taking a final sip of water. 

“Of course,” Jongin agrees, absently resting a hand on the small of Sehun's back as they start to head out of the restaurant. He picks up on a sudden whiff of burnt sugar and he's just about to attribute the scent to the massive crème brulé a couple is sharing nearby, when Sehun moves closer.

The scent instantly gets a little stronger and – _oh_.

Once the realisation that the scent comes from Sehun – a scent likely triggered by his touch – hits him, Jongin's mouth _waters_. 

The cherry atop the sundae, though? When Sehun turns to him and says in a voice soft enough for no one else but him to hear: “You smell good.”

Heat flares inside him, surging up alongside primal need and want. It comes from the very depths of him, desires almost foreign after months of never being tended to. He is by no means inexperienced, not when his entire university career was filled with studying, partying, and helping pliant omegas through their heats. But he is very career-oriented, perhaps too much so, upon reflection.

It’s simply safer that way, for both parties involved. Without a mate, Jongin doesn’t have to worry about their safety when he’s working a particularly risky case, and in return, there will be no reason to have his mate worry. 

Jongin has never regretted that trade-off, but there have been times where he would wonder what life would be like if he never made that decision. Like right now, for example, with Sehun so close and smelling like a dream come true. He lets his gaze flicker down to Sehun’s rose petal mouth, soft and inviting, and Jongin swallows down the nonsensical plea that threatens to spill forth. 

“Thanks,” he ends up saying instead. A brief pause, then: “You do too.”

He _knows_ he’s not imagining the dilation of Sehun’s pupils, and it’s a true testament to their wills that they step onto the sidewalk and head down the street for chimney cones instead of returning to one of their homes for dessert of another type. 

Sehun buys them a cone each, and they manage to find a nice bench in the nearby park, under the shade of a large oak tree. 

They’ve barely made a dent in their cones when Sehun chooses to drop a bomb. 

“Erin’s father contacted me a couple of days ago.” He says it so nonchalantly that Jongin takes far too long to process the words. Once he does, once the weight of them sinks in, he nearly drops his spoon in shock.

“He _what?_ ”

Sehun licks a streak of ice cream off the back of his spoon. “He contacted me. Not quite sure how he got my number, but he – what are you doing?”

He’s seeing red. Jongin pulls out his phone and is two taps away from calling Natalie and demanding for an internal investigation when Sehun snatches the phone out of his grip. 

With a firm hand against his cheek, Sehun orders, “Look at me.”

Jongin does, nerves thrumming and muscles drawn tight. He wants to know who leaked Sehun’s (or any other member of his pack’s) number, but Sehun’s tone is so strong that Jongin finds it hard not to obey. 

“It doesn’t matter how he got my number. There are some very talented people behind screens these days – it’s likely the act of someone outside of your team. Do you trust them?”

Jongin nods, tongue-tied and unable to form words.

“Then I do, too,” Sehun says simply. He lets his hand drop and Jongin misses the warmth instantly. “Besides, I told him I want nothing to do with him. He apologised for leaving and wants to meet Erin, but I’ve made it very clear that if he ever lays a finger on her, I will rip him to shreds.”

As Sehun chews on a chunk of dough, Jongin has no doubt that the omega would easily follow through with his threat. 

“If you need anything,” Jongin says, “please do not hesitate to ask.”

Sehun smiles, a hand coming to rest on Jongin's thigh. “I know. Thank you, sweetheart.”

Jongin's ears go up in flames. 

  
From where they are at Sehun's doorstep, Jongin can hear Erin’s squeals and Baekhyun’s voice trickle through the gap beneath the door. 

“I had a great time,” Sehun says, all relaxed smile and ruffled hair. They'd walked through a particularly windy side street just mere moments ago, and Jongin is quite enamoured with a lock of Sehun's hair that the wind dislodged, curling stubbornly upwards.

“I'm happy you did.” Feeling brave, he reaches out for Sehun's hand, curling his fingers into a loose ring around a slim wrist. Sehun makes a pleased sound and uses their connection to tug Jongin a little closer. “I'd like to take you out again, if that's something you would be up for.”

That smile turns into a full-blown grin, and the next thing he knows, Jongin's got a pair of lips on his own and a hand buried in his hair. 

Sehun kisses like a slow fire, mouth moving easy and calm, tongue a hot curl as he licks lazily into Jongin’s mouth. The kiss melts away all of Jongin’s coherency until he can feel his alpha’s growl in the pit of his stomach, held back by a rope that’s beginning to feather. 

Then Sehun pulls away, mouth red and pupils blown. Jongin breathes in deep, goosebumps rising at the scent of Sehun’s blatant arousal, something spicy and sharp that tugs at the very heart of him. But now’s not the time. 

“Have a good rest,” he murmurs, voice pitching low. Foreheads pressed together, he picks up on Sehun’s responding shudder, the omega in him reacting instinctively to an alpha’s rasp. Jongin preens internally. “Give Erin a kiss for me.”

Right before Sehun turns to open the door, Jongin stops him with a few fingers under his chin. He guides Sehun’s mouth back to his own for one more kiss, chaste and sweet this time, then lets go with great reluctance, stepping away with a small wave. 

“Goodnight, Jongin.”

Jongin waits until Sehun’s inside before he leaves, blood singing the entire way home. 

  
There’s no doubt in Jongin’s mind that the entire department is aware of the developing relations between him and Sehun. He gets knowing looks from everyone, and his boss even gives him a clap on the shoulder in approval (!). 

“Why is this such a big deal,” he asks Natalie, exasperated. She smirks, spinning around in her chair in a way that has Jongin rolling his eyes to the heavens. 

“Because,” she says, placing a heavy emphasis on the second syllable, “we’ve been working together for almost three years now, and in that time, I only know of…” She makes a show of counting on her fingers, “six separate dates. Of which none have made it to the second round.” 

Jongin snorts, sending three emails straight to the bin with a few swift clicks of his (new) mouse. “Just because I chose to focus on my career instead of my love life doesn’t mean I can’t have one. And it’s not as if I didn’t give dating a chance – none of those people were remotely interesting, so why should I waste my time?”

“Okay, see, we didn’t know that.”

Jongin throws a pencil at her head. Natalie, of course, dodges it without even blinking an eye. 

“But no, seriously. We’re happy for you. He seems really nice and you seem to really like him.”

There’s a hidden question in there somewhere – she’s abnormally good at getting answers out of people –, and it’s a question that Jongin doesn’t really need to think too hard in order to figure out. 

“I do really like him.” He says it quietly, chin down and gaze fixed on the screen in front of him. It’s a scary thing to admit, because doing so makes it very, very real. 

A heavy second of silence passes, then Natalie rests a hand on Jongin’s forearm and squeezes. No words are said, but Jongin receives her support in full, anyway. 

  
For their second date, Jongin brings Sehun and Erin out to a child-friendly park. There’s a playground nearby, but Erin’s still much too young (almost eight months old!) to play on it, so they stick to letting her crawl around the blanket-covered grass. 

The weather’s wonderful, sunny with a breeze, and the tree they’re under provides plenty of shade. It’s purely self-indulgent, Jongin’s decision to bring them here. He’d wanted to spend time with both mother and child, and not inside the four walls of Sehun’s apartment. What better place than out here, surrounded by dogs, greenery, and other happy families? 

Jongin flushes, forcing himself to push the thought of the three of them being a happy family out of his head. This is the second date – what does he think is going to happen?

A nudge against his thigh has him looking down. Erin’s there, both hands placed on the top of Jongin’s thigh, pressing down for support as she does something akin to… waddling? 

“Oh my god,” he utters, a hand flying down to support Erin should she fall. “She’s… she’s _standing_.” 

Sehun, busy with taking a few photographs of the flowers to their left, whirls around. Sure enough, Erin’s on her two little feet, fingers still curled around the fabric of Jongin’s pants. She gurgles proudly up at him, spittle running down her chin, and Jongin instinctively moves to wipe it off with the bib around her neck. 

“Oh my god,” Sehun echoes. The camera turns to focus on Erin, and Jongin thinks he sees the shine of tears in Sehun’s eyes. He smiles, looking back down at a very proud Erin, the span of his hand settled against her entire back. She totters about for a few moments, taking a few steps in each direction, until her chubby little legs give out and she flops back down on her bottom. Jongin takes most of her weight, and Erin makes a little noise before promptly flipping over onto her knees and crawling to Sehun’s side. 

Sehun picks her up and cradles her against his chest, now flat and no longer full with milk. Erin buries into him anyway, the warmth and scent of her mother ever familiar to her. 

“Look at you, standing and walking all in one day” Sehun coos, brushing her hair out of her face. Erin’s hair is a caramel brown, probably inherited from her father. The thought that the other alpha had managed to leave a mark on the daughter he doesn’t deserve twists Jongin’s gut into knots, but if Sehun has no complaints, then neither should he. 

Erin drools onto Sehun’s shoulder, too busy basking in her mother’s attention to care about keeping her saliva in her mouth. Jongin finds a cloth in the baby bag and dabs up the puddle before tucking it beneath Erin’s chin. 

Sehun smiles at him, looking so ridiculously happy that Jongin feels a rumble stirring in his chest. The alpha inside him is proud and rightfully so, and for once, Jongin fails to keep it silent. It’s clear that Sehun hears it, if his widening smile is any indication.

“You sound happy,” he comments, gently pulling a chunk of his hair out of Erin’s insistent grip.

“I am.”

In the distance, a dog barks and Erin twists around curiously, wriggling in Sehun’s arms until he sets her down. She doesn’t crawl far, but does orientate herself towards the dog, ears perked. Sehun lets her be, choosing instead to pull a knee towards his chest and prop his elbow up on it. 

“You’re happy,” he continues, “because I’m happy.”

Jongin’s tongue feels like cotton in his mouth. “Uh,” he starts. Christ, he hasn’t been on a date with someone he likes in a long time, and it clearly shows. “Yes,” he says after too much thinking.

Laughing, Sehun reaches over and Jongin watches in mild amazement as Sehun laces their fingers together. The following squeeze has him jolting out of his thoughts, cheeks warm as Sehun scoots closer. 

“I’m happy that you’re happy that I’m happy,” Sehun says, and leans over to kiss him on the corner of his mouth. “You’re a good man, Jongin. I’m glad life has turned out this way, you know. Sure, I was gutted when he left, but looking back, I think I was more upset over the fact that my child and I were abandoned, rather than the fact that we were abandoned by him.”

He lifts their linked fingers, free hand shooting out to gently pull Erin back onto the blanket from where she’s starting to wander off. Once he’s sure she won’t start crawling maniacally towards god-knows-where, he turns back to Jongin.

“I’m happy he left me, because otherwise, I would never have found you.”

All Jongin can do is gape, Sehun’s words leaving the tips of his ears horribly warm and his alpha whining piteously in an attempt to be let free. Looking immensely pleased with himself, Sehun turns his eyes towards the rest of the park, head tilted to the side and exposing the fair column of his neck. 

Is it a subconscious action? Jongin eyes the spot where a mating bite would be, tongue running absently over the relatively flat points of his canines. Before he can tell himself not to think too far ahead, Sehun lets out a cloud of pheromones, brief but potent. He’s used to Sehun’s scent by now, but the sheer intensity of it has Jongin thinking that perhaps his train of thought isn’t about to be sent careening off into the wilderness after all. 

“Can I,” he begins, heart a drumbeat in his throat, “can I scent you?”

There’s the scent again, then Sehun tugs on Jongin’s hand and purrs. Jongin would say it’s all his imagination, but Sehun does it again, the sound sending shivers all through Jongin’s extremities. 

“Please,” is all Sehun says, and Jongin’s alpha breaks through those very carefully constructed walls. 

Jongin buries his nose into the crook of Sehun’s neck, uncaring of how Sehun’s hair tickles at him. He breathes in deep, muffling his moan into the warmth of Sehun’s skin. Sehun smells indescribably good up close, right at the source, and Jongin wishes he could surround himself in Sehun’s scent every second of every day. 

He’s so caught up in nuzzling into Sehun that he forgets they’re in public. It isn’t until he feels a gentle prod to his thigh that he surfaces, skin heated and canines threatening to drop. 

“If you keep going,” Sehun murmurs, “I fear we might get arrested for public indecency. I think the guy over there has already picked up on our scents.”

The way Sehun says _our scents_ so casually has Jongin groaning. 

“Sorry.” He makes to pull away, but something stops him and he can’t help but run the tip of his tongue right over Sehun’s pulse point. Flavour bursts over his tongue – a hint of natural salt, the chemicals of Sehun’s body soap, and the unique tang of his pheromones. It’s so delectable that Jongin does it again.

The omega tenses up at the touch, throat tight, and that’s when Jongin smells it. 

Sehun’s slick. There’s just the faintest hint of it, cloyingly sweet, but it’s there, and Jongin is the reason.

“Take me home,” Sehun whispers, already reaching out for Erin. The baby goes willingly, although she clutches on to the stalk of a tiny daisy, clearly reluctant to let her new toy go. Jongin packs everything up quickly, stuffing their things into bags before running after Sehun, who has already made it halfway across the park.

The whole drive passes in silence, Jongin’s grip on the steering wheel knuckle-white as Erin tries her best to fill the car with noise. In the confines of the car, Jongin forces himself to breathe through his mouth, lest he loses control of himself while they’re still on the road. 

He drives as fast as the speed limit will allow, cutting through traffic whenever the chance arises. A mere ten minutes later and he’s already pulling up to Sehun’s building, half the time it took for them to get to the park. 

When Jongin reaches into the backseat at the same time that Sehun does, their hands brush accidentally and the touch has Sehun gasping, brows coming together as his thighs clamp shut. 

Jongin swears under his breath and grabs their bags, turning on his heel towards the building’s lobby. They need to get inside soon, because if people start picking up on an aroused – and unbonded – omega out and about in public… well, just because some things are illegal, doesn’t mean that people will stop doing them. 

The ride up to Sehun’s floor is torturous, made worse when Erin makes grabby hands at Jongin and Sehun has no choice but to step closer to let her curl her fingers around Jongin’s index. 

The doors slide open, they turn a corner, and Sehun freezes. 

  
There’s someone standing by Sehun’s door, the colour of his hair almost identical to Erin’s. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who he is. 

Before Jongin can even take a step forward, however, Sehun all but dumps Erin in his arms and closes the distance between himself and his former alpha in a few strides. The typical sweetness of Sehun’s scent morphs into something bitter and strong, and Jongin watches in sheer amazement as Sehun wraps a hand around the alpha’s neck. The veins in his forearm pop, and in one swift swing, he shoves him up against the wall in an impressive display of strength that Jongin never knew he had. Plaster crumbles to the ground in a shower of white. 

“Why are you here,” Sehun snarls, eyes slitted and teeth bared. “I thought I told you to stay away.”

Erin lets out a little sniffle, scared of the sudden change in Sehun’s demeanour. As the hostility stretches on, the sniffle rapidly turns into a small cry, which then turns into a full-out wail. Jongin holds her close, rubbing a hand down her back and trying his best to calm her with his scent. 

“She’s,” the alpha tries, spluttering in Sehun’s grip, “she’s my daughter. I wanted to see her.”

“She is _not_ your daughter,” Sehun spits, tightening his hold for a few seconds before finally letting him go. He drops down to the floor, face purple, hand automatically flying to his throat to check for lasting damage. It’s there, sprawled on the ground, that he finally looks over and sees Jongin with a shrieking baby in his arms. 

The neighbours stay inside, both Erin’s cries and the mix of unappealing scents out in the hallway providing them with enough reason not to leave the safety of their homes. 

“Who’s he,” the alpha demands, his attempt at using his Alpha Voice ruined by the rasp of his bruised throat. 

“None of your fucking business, Uriel,” Sehun snaps. Uriel. Finally, a name for the monster. 

“None of my business?” 

With great effort, he gets to his feet and steps into Sehun’s personal space. Sehun doesn’t move away, not that he has to when he’s got an inch or two on Uriel. 

“How is it none of my business? He’s holding my girl!”

Uriel barely manages to finish his sentence before Sehun punches him right in the face. Hard.

“ _You_ were the one that left, _you_ were the one who abandoned her. _You_ do not get to call her your daughter.” He looks over his shoulder at Jongin, at Erin (safe, although a snotty mess) cradled in Jongin’s arms, and the hardness in his eyes softens visibly. “He was the one who was there for me during Erin’s birth. He was the one who bought her diapers, her formula, her toys. He was the one who drove us to her doctor’s appointments and playdates. She might share your blood, but you will _never_ be her father. Get out of my sight.”

“What, before you call the cops on me?” Uriel grunts thickly, nose pouring blood and most likely broken.

“He doesn’t have to,” Jongin says casually, shifting Erin onto his other side. She’s quietened down now, comforted by Jongin’s soothing. “I was one of the agents assigned to his case. You know, the case where the six of them were found abandoned in the woods? If he didn’t withdraw the charges, you’d probably be in jail right now, and I would’ve been the one that brought you in."

When he meets Sehun’s gaze, Jongin is pleased to see a small smile on the omega’s face.

Stupefied, bloodied, and utterly embarrassed, Uriel slinks away after he realises that he has nothing to gain from staying around. 

Once he’s out of scenting range, Sehun sighs and slumps against the wall, neatly avoiding where the paint and plaster are flaking off. He closes his eyes. “Never thought I’d see him again. Never thought Erin would have to spend a single second in his presence.”

Jongin heads over to the front door and opens it with the spare key that Sehun had given him a couple of months ago. 

“Come on. Don’t waste any energy thinking about him. He’s not worth it.”

He hands Erin over to Sehun when he crosses the threshold, then turns to close the door behind them. It shuts with a definitive snap. 

  
“Let me see,” Jongin says once Erin’s all cleaned up and given a bottle. Sehun frowns in confusion and Jongin gestures to the hand that’s currently grasping Erin’s bottle. “Your knuckles. You hurt them.”

“Oh.”

Clicking his tongue, Jongin steers Sehun over to the couch and sits him down, thumbing at Erin’s cheek when she blinks sleepily up at him, mouth sealed over the rubber nipple as she suckles. 

Jongin retrieves a clean cloth and a first aid kit from the bathroom, and wets the cloth slightly before he returns to Sehun’s side. Kneeling on the floor, he presses the cloth to Sehun’s scraped knuckles and dabs away at the dried blood.

“Sorry if it hurts,” he says, “but you clocked him really hard and I wanted to make sure these are just surface wounds.”

He works quickly and quietly, disinfecting and dressing the various cuts and bruises on Sehun’s knuckles one hand at a time. After he finishes, he gives both mother and daughter a kiss on their foreheads before returning to the bathroom and storing the kit away. 

When he returns, Erin’s finished with her milk and is flopped over Sehun’s shoulder, getting ready to burp. She belches, then gurgles, and Sehun gives her a big wet kiss on the cheek as a reward. 

Sehun takes her into the nursery for her nap, and Jongin spends a few minutes in the kitchen, putting together two mugs of tea. 

“Hey,” he says when Sehun enters the kitchen. Wordlessly, the omega drops down on one of the bar stools and graciously accepts a steaming mug of tea, lowering his nose to inhale the fragrance of the brew. Jongin studies him over the rim of his own mug. “You okay?”

“Hm?” Sehun looks pensive, but not upset. “Yes, I think I am.”

Jongin takes a sip of his tea and promptly flinches at how scalding hot it is. Somehow, Sehun seems to be drinking his just fine.

“For months I have always thought about what it would be like to see him again. Would I cry? If I did, would they be tears of joy or anger? What would he say to me? Would he apologise, tell me that leaving me was the biggest mistake of his life? Would I forgive him?” He takes another gulp of tea. “I went through perhaps hundreds of scenarios in my mind.” 

“And..?” Jongin prompts.

Sehun shrugs. “It would sound weird if I said that his return lived up to my expectations, because I had none. But at least it happened, I suppose. I no longer have to wonder.” 

Another tentative sip; this one goes down a little easier. 

“Do you think you’ll ever tell Erin who her father is?”

At that, Sehun looks up from his tea. “Yes. I think I will, just so she knows who the people who really love her are.” He stands abruptly, and Jongin stays rooted to the floor as Sehun walks around the kitchen island to where he is. 

Hands, warm from the brew, rise to cup his jaw.

A thumb runs across his bottom lip, pausing at the edge of his mouth, and Jongin’s heart does a little flip-flop at the crinkles that appear in the corners of Sehun’s eyes. 

“I’m gonna kiss you now,” Sehun says, and to Jongin’s delight, he does just so. 

There, up against the counter, they kiss. Joy kisses Sehun’s cheeks as Jongin kisses his lips, and when they part for air, Jongin eyes the omega’s flushed skin with pleasure. 

“Not that I’m complaining,” Jongin starts, then trails off. 

Sehun smiles, so terribly fond. 

“You’re the alpha I’ve always wanted to meet. The alpha I _deserved_ to meet.”

Growing up, Jongin’s parents all but forced him to go to church. He went, partly because he was a good kid and never liked disappointing his parents, but also because he wanted a reason to believe. He never found one. 

Now, stomach churning in the best way possible as he leans in to worship the sleek line of Sehun’s neck, he thinks something akin to a god might be real after all. 

They don’t lie together that day, but it isn’t for the lack of trying. 

Sehun is a line of heat beneath him, the coolness of the sheets offsetting his warmth wonderfully. His shirt has long since been discarded and Jongin spends an inordinate amount of time mouthing his way down a broad chest, pausing to lick over perky nipples that have fed a wonderful girl so well for months. Sehun no longer produces any milk, which Jongin finds a pity, because he would love to taste for himself the omega’s natural-born nectar. 

He ventures lower, pressing kisses to a stomach now taut and flat, but once full with child. The scar is still there, faint but visible, and Jongin caresses it with his thumb, in awe of what omegas are capable of. 

The moment he hooks his fingers into the band of Sehun’s underwear, however, Erin wakes up. She announces it with a grand wail and Sehun lets out a resigned sigh in response.

“I love her so much, but sometimes I wonder if she loves me too.”

With that, Sehun rolls out of bed. He gives Jongin an apologetic kiss before he shrugs into a bathrobe and disappears to tend to his daughter, leaving Jongin hard and aching at the foot of the bed. 

“Well,” Jongin mutters to no one in particular, reaching down to adjust himself. “Maybe next time.”

  
Jongin heads into work one Thursday and finds a stack of files on his desk. 

“What’s this?”

Mari glances over and wrinkles her nose. “Omega hate crimes. Serial, just crossed into our jurisdiction. We got our first body last night, over fifteen stab wounds to the torso; Kyungsoo’s down at the morgue waiting for Junmyeon to finish with the autopsy.”

Confused and perhaps a little offended, Jongin says, “We got a body last night and no one called me?”

Feathers unruffled in the face of Jongin’s very ruffled ones, Mari turns back to her work. “You were on a date, so we made a collective decision and decided not to disturb you. We know how you get when there’s a big case – you got a night’s respite. You should thank us, actually.” A few tables down, Alex tries and fails to suppress a snort of amusement. 

Jongin stares at her. Then, speechless, he takes a seat and opens the case file. At least they’re not banning him from working the case, he supposes.

… And, okay, his team isn’t exactly wrong. As predicted, Jongin spends most of his time on the case over the following weeks. Sehun is extremely understanding, however, perhaps too much so, because Jongin feels guilty for neglecting him.

When he tells Sehun as much over a mug of homemade mulled wine, Sehun kisses him and tells him that he has nothing to be sorry for. 

“Your work helps so many people; what kind of person would I be to fault you for it? Besides, I’m not going anywhere – I’ll still be here when the case is over.”

God, Sehun has such a way with words. Jongin wishes he had the time to lay Sehun out on his bed and ravish him the way he deserves, but he has to get up early tomorrow for a press conference. With their jobs and Erin taking up most of their time, the most they’ve gotten to indulge in are quick handjobs in the bathroom, interspersed by rutting up against each other’s thighs. It’s good – great, really –, but it’s simply not enough to sate their appetites. 

“I’ll try and wrap up this case as quickly as possible,” he promises, nosing along Sehun’s wrist as the omega cups a palm around his jaw. His scent is soothing and warm, and it fills Jongin’s heart to the brim. 

With the hand on Jongin’s jaw, Sehun pulls him in for another kiss. 

  
Jongin’s in the lab, looking over Yixing’s shoulder and listening to the beta’s explanation of what he’s looking at, when he gets a call. 

“Sorry,” he says as the ringing of his phone cuts off the forensic tech’s sentence. Sehun’s name flashes across the screen. “I have to get this.”

“Sure, sure.” Yixing waves a casual hand and turns back to the screen, the frame of his glasses glinting with the movement. 

“Hello?”

In the background, Jongin picks up on Baekhyun’s voice. It’s agitated and stressed, and it instantly puts him on edge. Then he hears the slam of a door, followed by some movement and a child’s cry. 

“Jongin?”

“Sehun? What’s wrong?”

“I, uh, I don’t know if this is – I don’t know if we’re just overreacting, but Sophie didn’t come home last night and she’s not answering her phone.”

Sophie is the youngest omega of the pack and a free spirit, and the older pack members dote on her, some perhaps a little too much. She was affected quite deeply by the alphas’ departure, but after taking some time to settle down, she has enrolled herself in college and seems to be really enjoying her time there, surrounded by new friends and a new environment. 

“Okay, I'll see if I can triangulate her location, alright? I'll call you back once I know something.”

Sehun thanks him profusely, and Jongin turns to Yixing the second he hangs up. 

“I can run a triangulation for you,” he offers. “I’ll send the last known address to Jongdae so he can start running searches by the time you get up to his lab. You can come back later; what I have to show you isn’t too pressing.”

So Jongin leaves Yixing with Sophie’s number scribbled onto a Post-it note and gets ready to embark on a journey to the other side of the building. 

  
Sophie’s missing. Kidnapped, to be specific, possibly by the very person they’ve been hunting for the past few weeks. 

She’s been gone for over 48 hours and Jongin hasn’t slept a single wink since he arrived at that conclusion. He spends all his time at the office, showering in the gym and sleeping (power naps, really) on the couch in the break room. 

One night, Natalie tries to get him to go home for a solid night's sleep, but Jongin simply fixes her with a look and turns back to his work – photographs, maps, and papers spread out all over the meeting room table that he'd commandeered for himself. 

He goes through every piece of evidence that they have, over and over again until they're embedded in his brain, then a few more times just in case. 

It's the fourth day after Sophie's disappearance that Sehun shows up, Erin in his arms. 

“Jongin.”

“Mm,” is Jongin's reply, too engrossed in a particular CCTV footage to pay much attention to Kyungsoo. 

“Jongin.”

“Yeah?” He squints at the screen and clicks around. 

“Jesus Christ – _Jongin!_ ”

“ _What?!_ ”

Jongin looks up, irritated, and sees Sehun standing off to the side of his desk. He blinks, surprised, and is shocked to realise that he was so focused on his work that he didn't even pick up on Sehun's scent. 

“You work too hard,” Sehun says quietly, setting a paper bag down on his table. From her perch in Sehun's arms, Erin stares at him, those big eyes burrowing deep into his soul, and blinks. 

“Oh. Hi,” Jongin replies, rather dumbly. 

With a click of his tongue, Sehun pushes the bag closer to him. “I brought you some lunch. I've been told you haven't been eating well.”

Jongin casts a look over at his team – everyone refuses to meet his gaze, although Kyungsoo has a grin playing along the curve of his lips. 

“I…eat,” he tries. 

“But are you eating _well_? Cold cuts from the cafeteria don’t cut it.”

Mari rolls an empty chair over to Sehun, who accepts it with a smile. He sits, hands Erin over to a mildly confused Jongin, and pulls a couple of containers out of the paper bag. 

“Eat,” Sehun says firmly. “Homemade food is better than anything you’ll get downstairs.”

Stew – meat, potatoes, carrots, and all sorts of flavourful ingredients – coupled with brown rice and a nice pile of kimchi. The sight of all this food, of Sehun’s time and effort and care, Jongin feels telltale pinpricks behind his eyes. The man is dealing with a missing pack member and somehow still finds the energy to cook him a meal?

He’d even packed actual cutlery. Jongin picks up a spoon, jiggles Erin on his knee until she giggles, then leans over to kiss Sehun’s cheek. Right now, he doesn’t care if the whole office sees. 

“Thank you.” 

Sehun moves closer until their knees press together. When he speaks, it’s in a tone of voice that has Jongin’s heart aching. “I need you to take care of yourself, okay? I already have Sophie to worry about, I don’t want to worry about you, too.”

“Okay. I promise.”

Work all but forgotten, Jongin tucks into his meal and doesn’t leave a single morsel untouched. 

  
In the end, after more than a month of hunting for the individual who’s been terrorizing the city, they find him. Everyone had expected it to be an alpha, simply due to the amount of sheer strength needed to carry out the heinous acts done to the omegas, but turns out to be an omega after all. Bitter, unstable, and scorned by an alpha for another omega, he’d embarked on a mission to rid the city of people he deemed to be his competition.

They also found Sophie, injured and dehydrated but otherwise whole. The moment he calls Sehun and tells him of the news, the entire pack rushes to the hospital to see her. 

He gets a text from Lena barely five minutes after he hangs up. _thank you so much,_ it reads. _i don’t know what we would do if we lost her, too._ Jongin spends far too long staring at the message – he doesn’t quite know what to say in response to that. 

Questioning takes up most of the day, but it ends with a written confession and a closed case, so Jongin can’t find it in himself to complain. Deciding to leave the report for tomorrow, Jongin leaves for home, finally able to indulge in a long, hot shower and perhaps an entire bottle of wine. 

He drives home with the radio turned down low, neck and shoulders aching from how tense he’s been. It’s been a while since he’s been able to drive without thinking about a case – now, his mind is blissfully quiet. The drive is a smooth one, the late hour bringing with it a lack of traffic. 

It takes him less than twenty minutes to get home. He parks, gets out of the car, and sees Sehun waiting for him on the front steps.

“Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the hospital?”

“Everyone else is there,” Sehun says, getting to his feet. “I left after Sophie fell asleep.” He runs his palms down his thighs and chews on his bottom lip. A furrow forms between his brows.

Jongin moves around him to unlock the door, and once it’s open, he ushers Sehun inside. “Everything okay?” 

“Yes,” Sehun says, quick to assuage Jongin’s worries. “I just… I just wanted to see you, really.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not going to complain about that.”

The moment their shoes come off, Sehun’s on him. His mouth is warm, lips gentle, fingers skating along the edge of his jaw like he’s something precious. 

“You have done,” each word punctured with a kiss, “so much for me. Everything I needed, you gave, and even if I didn’t need it, you gave anyway.”

“Of course,” Jongin replies, voice suddenly hoarse. “It’s you.”

Sehun makes a sound then, something full and poignant and – dare Jongin think it? – _loving_. He surges forward again, and this time, Jongin is ready for him. They fall backwards onto the couch, Sehun a heavy yet comforting weight astride his lap, and Jongin grips onto him.

They kiss until their lungs ache, until their lungs burn, and then they kiss some more. When they part, it’s to cherry red mouths and flushed skin, cocks firming up in their pants. 

“You keep giving,” Sehun whispers. “It’s my turn to give you something.”

  
The scent of Sehun’s slick, straight from the source, is unlike anything Jongin has ever experienced. As soon as it hits him, strong and mouthwatering, Jongin wants to whine, wants to fall onto his knees and beg for the omega to be his and only his. 

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this,” he croaks, smoothing his hands over the insides of supple thighs, thumbs skating along the seams. Muscles tense at his touch and Jongin watches, enraptured, as another pulse of slick runs down the crevice between Sehun’s asscheeks, leaving the skin wet and glossy. 

“I think I might,” is Sehun’s breathless reply. “Are you – are you just going to stare all night?”

“No,” Jongin says slowly, “but I’m having trouble deciding what I want to do first. …Any suggestions?”

Sehun huffs a laugh, fondness and amusement shaking his belly. Jongin grins sheepishly up at him. 

“Taste me.” Toes curl against the sheets, anticipatory. “Isn’t that what all alphas like to do?”

He’s not wrong – Jongin’s already salivating just thinking of it. But when Sehun hitches his knees up to his chest and spreads them apart, his mouth runs sandpaper dry. There, winking at him from between plump cheeks, all open and ready for him, is where he wants to be: buried inside, be it cock or tongue or fingers. 

But Sehun said to taste, so Jongin takes a much-needed breath and dives in, nose pressed against Sehun’s perineum and tongue flat over his dripping hole. He laves around Sehun’s entrance, each drag of his tongue collecting slick that Jongin swallows without hesitation. Above, Sehun’s squirming, sounds escaping him in thin moans and whimpers. 

The omega is so open and ready for him that it takes no effort at all to wriggle his tongue inside, curling the tip around the swollen rim and adding just the slightest amount of pressure when he pulls free. Sehun sobs, nails digging craters into his own flesh. 

Jongin laps at him until his mouth and chin are wet, until Sehun’s hole clenches desperately around nothing, until all he can smell and taste and feel is Sehun. 

Then Sehun says a quiet, “Breed me,” and Jongin’s brain grinds to a halt. 

“What?”

Sehun pushes up onto his elbows and stares down at Jongin, flushed and wanton. 

“Bite me,” he says, enunciating each syllable. “Mate me. Then knot me and breed me.”

Wait. Wait a fucking minute. Sehun wants him to –

“You want me to bite you? You mean, you want to be my –”

“Mate,” Sehun finishes for him. “Yes.” He’s biting down on his bottom lip so hard that the flesh goes white. When he releases it, blood rushes back in, turning it a gorgeous shade of ripe peaches. “If you’ll have me, of course.”

That’s the stupidest thing Jongin has ever heard. 

So he moves up Sehun’s body until they’re eye-to-eye, kisses him once on the lips, and moves to tuck his face into the crook of Sehun’s neck. His mouth hovers over the mating spot and he feels Sehun shudder when lets out a breath. 

“You really want this?”

“Yeah,” Sehun says. Jongin feels his words more than he hears them. “No one else in the world is going to love me like you do.”

Love him? Does Jongin love him?

Jongin gives that some thought. It takes him a little over a second to arrive at the conclusion that yes, he does. 

“Do you…”

“I’m so in love with you, Jongin. You have to know that.”

At that, Jongin sinks his teeth into Sehun’s flesh right as he slides into the hot clutch of Sehun’s hole in one smooth thrust. Sehun screams, body flooded with sensation, and he comes, entire frame seizing as his cock spurts out streaks of white. 

  
Snug and content inside the omega, Jongin waits patiently until Sehun’s breathing returns to normal, ignoring the way his cock aches for friction. He litters kisses all over Sehun’s hairline and smooths away strands that have plastered themselves to his skin. 

“You can move,” Sehun finally says, words a warm wash of breath over Jongin’s skin. He slings a leg around Jongin’s hip and pulls Jongin a little deeper inside. “Fill me, Jongin. You promised.”

Disappointing Sehun – his _mate_ , Jongin still can’t quite wrap his mind around that fact quite just yet – is akin to blasphemy in his books, so Jongin rocks into him once, twice, and…

He drinks in the moans that each snap of his hips punches out of Sehun’s throat, licking over the wound on Sehun’s neck until it seals over and stops bleeding. The omega’s so aroused that each slide of his cock into him has slick trickling down between their thighs, hole aflutter and walls tight. 

“I don’t think I’m going to last much longer,” Jongin admits, the alpha inside him rumbling happily when Sehun’s nails drag down his back, brief pinpricks of pain morphing into joy at the thought that his mate is marking him, too. 

Sehun kisses him, a messy press of lips against lips. He’s already hard again, blushing cockhead rubbing up wetly against the flat plane of Jongin’s stomach with each thrust of Jongin’s hips. “I don’t want you to last forever. I want you to come.”

There’s a period of silence wherein Jongin simply rocks into the omega beneath him while Sehun’s eyes flutter shut. Then, Jongin settles his cheek against Sehun’s temple and asks, “Do you really want…a child? With me?”

“I’m on the pill now,” Sehun replies, soft. “But when Erin’s a little older and I’m ready for my heats to return, yeah. I’d like to raise a baby with you. Your baby.”

His heart clenches and a lump of emotion finds its way up his throat. 

There’s nothing he can say to properly convey how much he wants that, so he decides to show it through actions instead. Rising up onto his knees, he tugs Sehun’s hips onto his lap, enjoying the way long legs wrap themselves around his waist. He thrusts in, Sehun moans, and Jongin finally lets his alpha take the helm. 

“Oh–! _Yes_ ,” Sehun groans at the first inkling of pressure against the inside of his rim. 

Jongin wants to hear that again, wants to hear Sehun’s blatant desire for his knot, the way his voice breaks just the slightest whenever Jongin’s as deep inside him as he can be. So in the few precious minutes before his knot fully forms, he sets to achieving his goals. True to his word, Jongin doesn’t last long. But, just as true to his word, he makes the shortened duration worthwhile, the head of his cock brushing perfectly over Sehun’s swollen prostate with each slide in and drag out. 

His breath leaves his lungs in a rush when he comes, cock pulsing into the grip of Sehun’s hole, knot swelling and catching on his rim. In the back of his mind, he vaguely registers the sharp sting of pain in his arms and shoulders, thanks to Sehun’s nails (and possibly his teeth?). 

He fills Sehun up, animalistic instinct to fill a healthy omega with pups evident in the trickle of come that manages to escape, sliding down the back of Sehun’s ass before it stains the sheets. Belatedly, he notices the mess on Sehun’s stomach and how flushed his cock and balls are – he must’ve really been holding himself back. 

Sehun’s death grip on his arms ease up and Jongin takes that opportunity to move. He drags a finger through the come splattered across Sehun’s belly, looks up at Sehun, and licks his finger clean. 

He hears Sehun’s breath hitch. 

“I think,” he says, uncaring of how rough his voice sounds, “your slick tastes better, by a slim margin.”

Sehun blinks up at him, looking mildly incredulous and perhaps slightly turned on. 

“But,” Jongin continues, collecting another fingertip of come, “this is more than good enough.”

A whimper, and Jongin watches as Sehun’s spent cock gives a hopeful twitch. Grinning, he rocks into Sehun, knot keeping him in place but allowing him to angle the head of his cock up against the omega’s pleasure spot. 

They have about twenty minutes until Jongin’s knot deflates – might as well put it to good use. 

  
Jongin has never seen Sehun this frazzled. 

The pack is busy planning for Erin’s upcoming first birthday party, and for some reason, a birthday party for a one-year-old child seems to be giving six adults a whole bunch of stress. It’s a week from now, and Sehun can’t decide if they want to celebrate at home or out at some child-friendly restaurant. He’s been dithering over this so long that Jongin decides to ask Erin herself.

He writes _Home!_ and _Out!_ onto two strips of white paper and places them in front of her. She cocks her head inquisitively and Jongin pokes at a chubby cheek.

“C’mon baby girl. Help your mother out.”

Erin lets out a grand “aaaaaaaaaaaaaah,” and promptly smacks one of the slips with her hand. 

“The birthday girl has made a choice!” Jongin calls, giving her a proud kiss on the forehead. 

Everyone else rushes over, equal parts curious and desperate for a solution. 

Sehun lifts Erin’s hand off the paper and turns it around to see _Home!_

Chuckling, he leans across Erin’s baby mobile and gives Jongin a kiss in thanks. “Home it is.”

After that, planning goes a little better, if Jongin can say so himself. 

It takes considerably less time for them to decide on a theme, a cake, and a menu for both the adults and the kids – after all, babies can’t have actual party food. In addition to a couple of friends he’d made from work and Jongin’s family, Sehun chooses to invite all members Jongin’s team. 

“Without you and your team, we might not be here together,” he says, as if it’s as much of a fact as 1 + 1 = 2. “She may very well not be as happy and healthy as she is now, loved by so many people and kept safe.”

Jongin doesn’t want to think about that, about how different things would be if just one of the events that led up to their meeting failed to happen. A year, comparatively, doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but Jongin simply cannot imagine his life without the omega and his child. They’re mates now, bound together for life, and the thought of that never happening is… 

“I love you. You know that, right?”

“Gross,” Sophie complains, moving around to where Erin is and covering the baby’s ears with her hands. “There are minors present!”

“I think we all knew that before the both of you did,” Baekhyun adds. “Sehun looks at you like you hung the stars, and it’s clear you worship the ground Sehun walks on. God knows why – _ow!_ ” He rubs frantically at the spot on his arm where Sehun had pinched him and scowls. 

Sehun fixes his friend with an unimpressed look. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you moon after the guy at the –”

Baekhyun shrieks and pounces on Sehun, sending everyone else scrambling away for safety as they roll about on the ground, Baekhyun spewing out weak threats as Sehun laughs. 

“For the record,” Lena says, nudging Jongin in his side. “He loves you too.”

Jongin smiles. “Yeah, I know.”

  
Surrounded by presents (that she’ll either outgrow in two months or not be able to use them for another year), Erin looks absolutely delighted with how the day is turning out. 

She’s been calling out for Sehun the entire day, happy gurgles mixed in with her babbles of “Mama! Mama!”

Ever since she first said it several weeks ago, she hasn’t stopped, not that anyone (okay, apart from Maxime, but he’s a child and he gets annoyed easily, so that's perfectly understandable) has any complaints about it. 

She must love the attention, because Sehun melts whenever she calls for him. It's obvious, in the way the proud parent drops everything he's doing just so he can rush to her side as soon as he hears those two syllables. 

Jongin's got her propped up on his knee, a protective hand around her belly as his sister joins Sehun in preparing some (mushed up and appropriate for a baby's diet) cake for the birthday girl. She shares several tips she’d picked up with her own child – who’s spending the day with her paternal grandparents – and Sehun eats it all up.

Everyone else is scattered around the apartment; Jongin's parents are deep in conversation with Baekhyun (which is slightly worrisome) and the rest of his team are engaged in a game of Clue with Sehun's pack. They all seem to be relaxed and enjoying the small get-together, something that Jongin is extremely pleased to see. 

Sehun deserves a good birthday party for his darling girl, after all. 

“Mmmm,” Erin says, gazing up at Jongin. She grabs at a button, then frowns when it doesn't come off immediately. “Guh.”

Amused, Jongin is just about to find something for her to play with when she decides to say, very clearly, “Dada.”

Every single person within earshot freezes. Jongin’s brain short circuits. 

Then Sehun says, very calmly, as he turns back to his cake project, “Well, I think that was a long time coming.”

Jongin picks Erin up, resting her socked feet on his thighs, and gives her a kiss to the nose. She giggles, a thin line of spittle running down her chin, and repeats, “Dada.”

"My baby girl," Jongin murmurs, cradling her close. Sehun smiles down at his hands, Erin curls small fingers around Jongin's ear, and Jongin’s mother promptly bursts out in happy tears. 

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of things to clarify:  
> \- Sehun is taking something similar to birth control; it keeps his heats away and prevents pregnancy.  
> \- Bond dissolution is literally like a divorce. Probably involves some medical procedure to undo the effects of a bite bond, but I didn't want to go into that :P  
> \- An alpha needs explicit permission from an omega to bite them; if she/he doesn't want to be bonded, the bond will not hold.  
> \- I use 'mother' as an umbrella term for anyone in the universe who gives birth, regardless of primary gender.  
> \- Male omegas will always require a c-section, for obvious reasons.  
> \- Scenting is like... foreplay? It conveys attraction for the other person. 
> 
> Phew, this fic went on for way longer than I had planned :'D


End file.
